International Society for Human Rights (IGFM), Gutmann and Other China-Experts Ask Bodies-Exhibitions Worldwide to Provide DNA of their Exhibits.

Past News Releases

On July 12 in Vienna, Austria, Author Ethan Gutmann and the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) are among the sources that will present the results of investigations into the possible link between plastination exhibits using human bodies and the execution of a religious group in China. The press conference will be from 9:30 – 10:00 (8:30 – 9:00 GMT) at Maria-Theresien-Platz 1, 1010 Wien, Austria in front of the Naturhistorisches Museum, which currently houses one of the Body World exhibitions.

Gutmann, an investigative journalist and author of “Losing the New China”, and the IGFM are joined by selected NGOs in calling for plastinated bodies exhibitions worldwide to provide the DNA of their specimens. The findings that Gutmann will present at the press conference expose evidence that warrants such action.

Plastination is a method of preserving human and animal specimens developed by Gunter von Hagens and used in his Body World exhibitions. Certain plastics replace water and fat, which results in bodies that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and retain a substantial number of properties of the original.

Currently, the two primary competing shows are von Hagens´s "Body World" and "Bodies: The Exhibition" by his former apprentice, Professor Sui Hongjin. Both were in Dalian city in China and friends of City Mayor Bo Xilai, considered a "princeling" of Chinese politics and the perpetrator in the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. Bo Xilai is widely considered the leading political figure in organ harvesting in China, a practice that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Falun Gong-practitioners who were killed for their organs in Chinese labor camps between 2000 and 2005 alone.

Among the evidence that will be covered by Gutmann is that the plastination method thriving in China during the most intense period of the persecution and harvesting of organs of Falun Gong.

While Gunter von Hagens has claimed that he has cremated all his Chinese specimens and replaced them with Caucasians, Gutmann and other principal investigators into the Vienna exhibit are calling for DNA-based proof.

A similar event is planned for site of the New York Body World exhibition at Discovery Times Square.